The Tenth Republic - what is the new normal?

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff. Baiters and bashers can jog on somewhere else.

If you are NOT staff and just have a general education query please start your own thread.

You can play here only if you are a member of one the following groups-

-ABBA - anti bashers and baiting association
-SWAB - school workers against bashers
-SWOT - school workers opposing teacherbashers
-STARS - schoolworkers together against ranting + slurs

Other requirements for staff room entry include the ability to find the staff room, the ability to find a clean mug in the staff room, knowledge of the photocopier codes, and the ability to sniff out where the toffee vodka is hidden.

If you are fed up with cakes and biscuits there is now a cheeseboard on offer

If you come with a stick to beat us with then please do so elsewhere and not in the staffroom.

Some in the neu are claiming that KS was funded by a pro Israel Lobby.

I know so little about all this I can't comment but it does seem to be all centred around which side of labour you're on.

Right I’m now a member of nasuwt. If I read it right my first year is free and this time next year Rodney...

Relieved to have done it. I’m due back in work in just over a week and still no word on whether they’ll meet any of the accommodations requested by my doctor and I.

I joined a teacher memes FB group and now all I ever seem to see on fb is teacher memes. Clearly I’ve been missing out on hot political discussion!

My school has relatively good behaviour, but if you leave your classroom unlocked/unsupervised at lunchtime there will be litter, chairs/desks out of place, food debris, spillages (even though the rules are quite clear that nothing other than water may be consumed in classrooms), etc. They're not necessarily deliberately trashing a classroom, but they are being thoughtless, and assuming that cleaning up their mess is someone else's job. Which is what teens do when they're in a group.

all centred around which side of labour you're on.

Hmm if you’re claiming that KS sacked RLB because he is funded by Israel, that would appear to be the antisemitic conspiracy theory side of Labour.

Why are there so many batshit people around these days??

Where would teachers be eating their lunch if not in their classroom? Our staffroom is basically empty at lunchtime.

I make a point of leaving my classroom and going to sit with colleagues. We have a department office thing.

Anyone who does a club at lunch gets a free lunch. Anyone who supervises at lunch gets paid.

Can’t sit with colleagues though piggy because bubble.

Thanks @noblegiraffe - yes, not sure what they wanted to achieve! Have just googled and MS made it free from May until 1 July to show how they support students because you hold a virtual graduation with up to 20,000 watching, apparently:

www.onmsft.com/news/schools-can-now-use-microsoft-teams-for-free-to-hold-host-virtual-graduation-ceremonies

Yes, true noble, so I will just sit in the staffroom on my own. I'll be doing a lunch time supervisor out of a job . I reckon there won't be bubbles in secondary : we'll see

My room ahs no ventilation, anyway, so it's a death trap, I tell you! Biohazard!

@StrawberryJam200

MS TEAMS question: is it possible to disable both Chat and individual participants' ability to Unmute themselves?

(Asking for a friend who's just had her first go at a virtual assembly for lower school..... )

Our head does the virtual assembly on the school's private YouTube channel. We share it in form period on Teams though.

I've been told to try and do a live assembly on Teams. Hate assembly at the best of times, and have read a book to them every day since lockdown started. I pick lots of stories and things that have discussion points I talk around a bit. Fuck the live assembly into space frankly.

Seen this one?

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/coronavirus-outbreak-nursery-20-children-22253165

Oh I know it makes me sound petty and ridiculous but the thought of being in school full time with no or very limited interaction with my department and eating lunch either alone or with kids (much as I do genuinely miss them) makes me

Me too duchess. I love the kids at school but I really get on well with my department and we all sit in our department office every lunchtime, for varying amounts of time. We talk about bad lessons, discuss where we're up to with classes, chat about anything and everything. I would hate to lose that, it's what keeps me sane at times.

I fully agree with the lunch..I'm FE so we are usually all staggered but usually someone in our office ( we are all nomads with no fixed classrooms which has many downsidess). It would be miserable to have no down time from the students at all

I think most of us would understand that feeling. Tbh it's like most of life outside of hone/bubbles at the moment: everything has to be purely functional. No chatting in the supermarket or elsewhere. No smiles when masks are on. Certainly no hugging.

Really not great for our mental health.

Well done honey.

Nobel, I think I'd rather have the memes at the mo

that would appear to be the antisemitic conspiracy theory side of Labour. my head is boiling now. It's all tooooo confusing! I feel like I never get to read a fully neutral history of it all.

It's the unofficial neu fb page. I didn't check how many there were though!

We've often had to have some children in eating at lunch time and it's well understood that it's hard on staff who do that. They simply need physical time away from the children (it's usually with extremely challenging classes where pupils would have autism with severe language and interaction difficulties.)

But thinking back to mainstream, I needed a break from them to eat. If they then go out to play, you'd have to use that time to do any setting up.

You can all sit alone and zoom each other at lunch

I stay in my classroom at lunchtime because I need to work through it so I can leave in enough time to pick up from afterschool club. I work through my break time too. That's both main sets of morning books marked and sorted ready to quickly resource the next day's lessons before I go home. It's been very weird starting a new job at the same time as needing to leave a school building at 4.45, and also being a very long way down the end of a corridor. I needed to be sociable, but couldn't.

For both me and child, the lockdown has been good socially. I've made friends with people I work with, and she's made friends within her bubble at school, and has I've been able to facilitate those friendships more by being around to walk home via the park with other kids and parents.

Today, a group of us sat around in the shady garden area at school on picnic chairs eating our lunch and chatting (from a distance). It was lovely.

I’ve not talked to my colleagues since the day school closed.

I get a phonecall once a week to discuss my work.

It’s a bit weird and depressing tbh. We weren’t the most sociable department, but I do feel like I’m working on my own all the time.

I’ve had loads of contact with friends who are ex colleagues so it’s not like I’m usually a teacher-no-mates, but they all left.

I feel like my HOD could do a bit more for team spirit, I never thought I’d miss team meetings.

I've gone in to school just for the social side of things to be honest. We were allowed in so long as we kept to our rooms, but we always went to the staffroom at lunchtime. Usually 3 or 4 of us in. A couple worked there the whole time because crap broadband at home, or lived with parents etc.

I'm going to do that more often now I don't have to worry about partner going to hospital - I was keeping myself out of the way until that was done. As of Monday I'll go in 3 days a week - drop child off, go to work, leave at 3.15. Still going to do my lesson planning and recording at home as it's easier here now.

Noble did your department not have any online meetings in this time? I've had ones probably fortnightly, dh has had them twice a week (which is too much!)